


Ethereal

by Morfanerina



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Aziraphale appears, Gen, Statement Fic, but has like two lines of dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22867174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morfanerina/pseuds/Morfanerina
Summary: Date and Location unknown, possibly from Before Christ, written in a preserved clay tablet, currently in an hidden temple.< /p>Statement regarding the encounter of an unusual being by an Avatar of the Beholding in ages past.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	Ethereal

It is on a small tavern that my statement starts. The location never had a name besides the one locals gave, and the date is hazy from my experience so I do not dare to try, afraid I might write falsehoods, which I refuse to feed my God.

There had been a man, fear so sweet and recent, whose statement had come forth with nary a command. It had been nectar and I wrote on my clay tablet, faithfully and diligently, as he recounted encountering a strange children’s toy, possessed surely by demons wishing ill on his family.

As he was the only survivor, he was not completely wrong.

In the end, the man had stumbled away, dazed, just as I finished writing the Story. I knew it was True and not a mere fancy from a delusional, wretched soul. Another one to feed my God and, I remember, feeling the ripple of pleasure that comes from being good as the Avatar, the shudder of fear from having all the Beholding’s attention upon myself. The Ceaseless Watcher hummed beneath my skin as I got up, hunger satisfied for a little while, allowing me to be the farce of a simple human again.

I had planned to go see the sights, scout for more Stories in the city, so I could plan if I should stay or grab a ride to another place, rich with new Truths, when I had a peculiar sense of dread. I had thought other Avatars might have been in town and oh, their Truths would be such gifts to my God, so I turned in the direction I could feel the dread. A thrum from deep inside me, the itch of the eyes hidden within me, and the weight from the attention, from the ever watchful eye that I so worshipped, seemed to agree with this idea.

So I went.

I remember the city not being very large, but this Story was hidden well and it took until the sun was lowering, and the sky turning deep blood red, for me to see what was calling to me.< /p> And oh, it was a what, not a who. My God thrummed beneath my skin so strongly I quivered. It wanted, craved this being’s Truth in such a way I could not help the gasp from escaping me.

The person shaped being did not react to my sound and it was then that I saw it was talking with a child, low, soothing voice chasing away what had been tears from a clumsy boy falling on his knees playing. It’s skin was pale, with even paler, almost white curls, and it wore the whitest set of robes I had ever seen. As the child scuttled away, laughing and thanking the being, I saw the other had clay tablets on it’s arms. Stories, some with power surrounding them. Or maybe it was the power of the human shaped being which had finally turned to me. When those blue-grey eyes locked onto mine, I felt the Vast and the Beholding and the Lonely and the Desolation, while not feeling any of them at all.

My God sang under my skin at the attention and the itch intensified and I just wanted to Look.

The being sighed, then “Oh, it’s one of you,” it had said, voice taking a flat tone, eyes guarded and shuttering in such a way it left me breathless and feeling as if it had closed my vision upon it, for suddenly it looked, and felt, like a normal human man, if just slightly ethereal looking.

Ethereal. It came to me from the Watcher, the knowledge of what I was facing. One that belonged to stories of the Ages, an Avatar much like me but for another Patron outside of those I know of.  
I needed that Truth, my God demanded it from me.

I used the power to compel this being to give it to me, pushed and forced it to drag it to me, but it did not do much besides shivering and taking a step back, face glaring at me.

“Now that is just rude,” it huffed, this ancient being, and I remember being shocked by how easily it had bucked my patron’s power. It has been years since I had the difficulty to convince someone to give me their Story, yet I knew even Avatars’ would feel difficulty resisting this much. If the resistance did not kill them that is.

The human shaped being stared at me, warily, but did not seem willing to attack me, for which I am grateful, for I am weak of body as I gave my all to my God, and human necessities were just secondary to me.

The fear welled within me. This creature mocked me with its’ silence, and my God was demanding and I did not dare to disappoint it. Feeling the full force of the Eye, beholding this scene, the itch of my other eyes grew to be painful and I knew what I had to do.

So I Looked.

And upon me was a beast, so luminous and impossible I can only try to describe it, knowing it is insufficient. Wings of the purest of white encompassed the city I was in. I could see wheels, and animals’ heads, all at once, as well as the odd, miniscule human mask it used in comparison.

What really stays with me, as the last thing I ever saw with these now useless eyes of mine, were the infinite number of eyes, all that terrible blue-grey colour, covering the wings and the wheels and the mask, all pointed right at me, as well as through me, to my God, passively and inhuman and challenging, as a deep, not quite sound, reverberated through me, breaking the bonds I had with the Ceaseless Watcher as all went completely, and absolutely, black.

I did not manage to get the Truth and I am now useless to my God, blind as I was sentenced to be by that ethereal Avatar, but I do feed to the Beholding this, my last Truth, before I breathe my last and go with Death. I know this will arrive to my other kin, and may this be a warning to not be as foolish as I was in trying to force this being, which has known Us from the very Beginning, with a Compulsion, for our humanity does not give us enough to surpass it in power.

Our God desires for this Being’s Truth and it shall have it, one day, when you, my Brethren in worship, register it. And I believe it will sate the Watcher’s hunger for longer than any other’s would.

May you be forever Watchful.

**Author's Note:**

> Just throwing this into the void since might as well, it is already written anyway.


End file.
